Friday 23 September 2011

The religious calendar from Thorikos

Source: Hellenic Ministry of Culture
The return of the religious calendar from the J. Paul Getty Museum to Greece may set a serious precedent. It appears that Eugene Vanderpool ("A southern Attic miscellany", in Thorikos and the Laurion in Archaic and Classical Times, Miscellanea Graeca, vol. 1: 21-42. Ghent, 1975) knew about the inscription from ASCSA student David F. Ogden (see G. Daux, "Recherches préliminaires sur le calendrier sacrificiel de Thoricos", Comptes-rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 124e année, N. 2, 1980, pp. 463-470). Ogden was a student at ASCSA from 1959 to 1961 and wrote a paper on “Thorikos: A Fresh Survey of the Site with Chart and Plans”. If Ogden had indeed seen the inscription in the region of Thorikos some 10 years before the 1970 UNESCO Convention, why has the Getty agreed to return the inscription?

And if the Getty is willing to return objects that left Greece during the 1960s, what other objects will now be returned? What about parts of the Keros haul?

And what are the implications for other North American (as well as European) museums? Will there be renewed claims on items that left their countries of origin prior to 1970?

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think only James Cuno knows the answer. The Getty has lots (!) to repair.

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